Culture awareness in English language teaching

This paper describes the Malta Culture Awareness Project aimed at introducing a culture component in English teaching in the lower forms of the secondary school. The research was based on the belief that "a culture component in language teaching actually improves language learning and makes students more tolerant of cultural diversity". The assumptions are that culture awareness (a) facilitates language learning and (b) makes students more tolerant and appreciative of diversity. Indeed these very assumptions underpinned the Council of Europe Project "Language Learning For European Citizenship", which was launched in the light of the socio-political phenomena that created the "House of Europe" in the last 20 years (Neuner 1994). Our assumptions were also substantiated by Byram and Zarate (1995, Preface) "the Council of Europe believes that teachers of languages (and also of other subjects as history and education for citizenship) have a central role to play in preparing young people for full and active democratic citizenship in the new Europe".peer-reviewe

Birth Fathers: Unequal Power and Myth in the Terry Achance Case

In the Terry Achane case, a birth father who was in the military was not notified when his child's birth mother put up their child for adoption. Birth fathers are often stereotyped as uninvolved and irresponsible, especially when they are not married to the birth mother. Terry Achane was married. The adoption agency made little effort to contact him, raising ethical issues about the roles played by the race, economic status, and perhaps religious beliefs of the adopting parents

"To design for the future you must leaf through the past": Museums as part of systems of innovation

Museums are not conventionally associated with innovation or viewed as part of innovation systems. After all, we could argue, museums are about the past, heritage, and nostalgia, whereas innovation is about the future. Yet, if this is the case, why does a company such as BMW co-locate its archive, museum, and innovation center? In this preliminary essay on the combination of past and present knowledge in innovation, we revisit the academic literature on innovation systems. We explore how, historically, museums and their collections have contributed to innovation and to the development of innovative designs. We ask: How have organizations set up to preserve the past contributed to the future, and what has encouraged and inhibited these processes? We focus primarily on nineteenth- and twentieth-century experience in the United Kingdom and on the relationships among the arts, design, and industry on the one hand and museum collections on the other

Show Me How to Do Like You: Co-mentoring as Feminist Pedagogy

Three professors reflect on the experience of creating a learning community of 22 students by linking courses in Literature and Ethics. The project demonstrates practical strategies for incorporating feminist scholarship and pedagogy into the core curriculum and for integrating core courses from diverse disciplines

The Native Plants of Ohio

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Outline of the 2005 European Resuscitation Council Guidelines

Resuscitation guidelines are revised and updated about every 5 years and this happens because resuscitation science continues to advance and clinical guidelines must be updated regularly to reflect these developments and advise healthcare providers on best practice. To date, the 2000 resuscitation guidelines are followed in Malta and other countries worldwide. These guidelines have been now revised by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) and a consensus has been reached resulting in the publication of the 2005 guidelines. The ILCOR was formed in 1993 and its mission is to identify and review international science and knowledge relevant to CPR, and to offer consensus on treatment recommendations. A total of 281 experts completed 403 worksheets on 276 topics. Three hundred and eighty specialists from 18 countries attended the 2005 International Consensus Conference on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Science, which took place in Dallas in January 2005. Science statements and treatment recommendations were agreed by the conference participants and the results are now the new 2005 Resuscitation Guidelines. These ILCOR guidelines will be published internationally on the 28 th November 2005 for the first time. The Malta Resuscitation Council (MRC) participated in meetings of the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) where the dissemination of these new guidelines was discussed. This article will try to summarize the major changes incorporated in the new guidelines.peer-reviewe

How Latino immigration may be making the US less tolerant of violence.

This year’s presidential election campaign has been marked by Republican nominee Donald Trump’s rhetoric towards Latino immigrants which characterizes them as more likely to commit violent crimes. But that portrayal is far from the truth, writes Mary Rose. In a new study of attitudes towards violence, she finds that Latinos are less likely than whites to believe that violence is necessary to prevent future violence or that people have a right to kill someone in self-defense

Compact near-infrared 3-dimensional channel waveguide lasers

This thesis presents the development of ultrafast near-infrared (NIR) waveguide laser sources, through the fabrication of waveguides in Yb-doped bismuthate glass using ultrafast laser inscription (ULI). An integrated linear cavity waveguide laser is demonstrated in the glass with output powers of 163 mW and a slope efficiency of 79%. The laser performance is comparable to bulk systems while providing additional advantages in terms of low threshold ~35 mW and system compactness. The simultaneous achievement of low propagation losses and preservation of the fluorescence properties of Yb ions after the ULI process is key to the outstanding laser performance. Based on the current interest in ultrafast laser development using graphene as a saturable absorber (SA), a systematic study of nonlinear absorption in graphene is presented. The nonlinear optical characterisation of graphene at the wavelengths of 1 μm and 2 μm contributes to the experimental evidence for the wavelength independent absorption saturation in the material. Ultrashort pulse generation from the Yb-doped bismuthate waveguide laser is investigated using SAs based on semiconductor technology and carbon nanostructures. The quasi-monolithic waveguide laser, employing a graphene SA generated ~485 mW output power with a slope efficiency of 49%. The laser generated ~1 ps pulses in a Q-switched mode-locked regime, with the mode-locked pulses measuring a high repetition rate of 1.5 GHz. Ultrafast laser development is also investigated based on a novel evanescent-wave mode-locker device, fabricated by ULI. The device consists of an orthogonal waveguide with the right-angle positioned along its angled facet. The substrate is converted into a mode-locker by depositing carbon nanotube SA at the angled facet. Mode-locked operation is demonstrated by incorporating the substrate in an Er-doped ring laser, generating ~800 fs pulses at 26 MHz. Some preliminary work is done to replicate the device design in an active gain medium, namely, Yb-doped bismuthate glass, for the development of compact laser sources

Effectiveness and Feasibility of In-office versus Smartphone Text-delivered Nutrition Education in the College Setting: A Mixed-methods Pilot Study

Often, being away from home for the first time, coupled with limited knowledge regarding healthy eating behaviors, leads to poor food choices and an increased risk of obesity among college-aged young adults. These college students are prone to high-calorie diets and limited physical activity, putting them at risk for obesity, a physiologically, psychologically, and financially costly epidemic in the United States. College students use their cellular phones over eight and a half hours a day and cell phones are their primary means of information consumption outside of the classroom, suggesting that the phones would be a useful tool to provide nutrition education to this at-risk population. This mixed-methods randomized-controlled trial took place over eight weeks, between 9/15/15 and 12/2/15. The primary aims of this study were to assess the effectiveness and feasibility between an educational nutrition intervention delivered via smartphone texts and a traditional in-office setting for 18-22-year-old, overweight college students at the Sonoma State University Student Health Center. Using simple randomization, participants were assigned to one of two groups: text, or in-office. Participants in the in-office group received one-on-one nutrition counseling framed within the social cognitive theory by a registered nurse at the study onset, week two, and week four. Participants in the text group received the same information, broken up into weekly text messages with links to websites, YouTube, and explanations of content. Participant characteristics, including weight, height, and health behaviors (hours of sleep a night, number of fruits and vegetables per day), were assessed at the study onset (T1) and again at week two (T2), week four (T3), and week eight (T4). All participants were invited to take part in an in-depth, qualitative, face-to-face interview at the end of the study (T4). Nine participants completed both the trial and interviews. Two-thirds (66.7%, n=6) were in the text group, 66.7% (n=6) were female, 33.3% (n=3) were minorities, 66.7% lived on- campus, and 44.4% (n=4) took part in the university’s on-campus meal plan. No statistically significant differences were noted in participant characteristics, or health behaviors between the two groups throughout the study. Although no statistical significance was noted between the two groups with regard to weight change, the text group’s mean weight decreased from 188.25(sd=25.03) pounds to 184.58(sd=24.67) pounds while the in-office group’s mean weight increased from 254.00(sd=90.15) to 257.00(sd=94.14) pounds. Weight loss in the text group should be further evaluated as it may hold clinical significance for effectiveness of the intervention. Through qualitative interviews exploring participants’ experiences, four major themes emerged. All participants in the text group (n=6) stated that they felt there was a need for their method of education, they felt their method was effective, they would recommend their method, and their health behaviors changed positively. For the in-office group, all participants (n=3) said there was a need for their method of education, 67% (n=2) said it was effective, all would recommend it, and 67% stated that they changed their behaviors. Both the quantitative and qualitative findings of this study hold clinical significance as to the effectiveness and feasibility of text messages as a means of providing nutrition education in the college setting. Future research with larger sample sizes and a longer-term study are recommended for more statistical power and to determine the long-term benefits of these methods of nutrition education